Miles Morales Adjusts to a New Ultimate Universe in Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1

As I’ve noted before, the current Ultimate Universe was created by the Maker, who is the Reed Richards from the original Ultimate Universe (the one that launched nearly 25 years ago), only a Reed that became criminally insane. The Maker traveled through the Multiverse, chose an alternate version of Earth, and then remade it, making sure that superheroes never came about, and that the world would be controlled by the Maker and his Maker’s Council (made up of various notable Marvel characters, only in twisted versions of themselves). However, Howard Stark decided to fight the Maker, and while Howard wasn’t able to DEFEAT him, he WAS able to trap the Maker in time, allowing Howard’s son, Tony Stark, to kick-start the age of heroes that this version of the Marvel Universe never got to have. So that’s what the current Ultimate Universe is made up of: heroes who had their destinies delayed for decades, but are now getting ready for the Maker’s return, to see if they can fight him for their world.

Now, for the first time, a character from the Marvel Universe is going to travel to this new world, and, naturally, it’s someone who came from the PREVIOUS Ultimate Universe (the same one as The Maker), Miles Morales.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 is from co-writers Cody Ziglar and Deniz Camp (writers of Miles’ current comics, and the Ultimates, respectively), artist Jonas Scharf, colorist Edgar Delgado, and letterer Cory Petit. You see, in Ultimate Invasion #1 (by Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch), the Maker visited Miles, and he offered to bring Miles with him to this new universe. Miles turned him down, but before he left, the Maker left a “key” for Miles that he could use whenever he wanted to take the Maker up on his offer.

Miles never did, but accidentally, Miles’ baby sister, Billie, activated the key, and now Miles has to get her back from the Ultimate Universe!

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How does Miles move to the Ultimate Universe?

As the issue opened, we saw Miles struggling with the Maker’s offer. You see, things are a bit murky as to HOW Miles’ universe was reconstituted in the Marvel Universe. It’s not the sort of narrative string that you really want to pull on too much if you’re a writer on Miles’ series, as it’s kind of existential to ask “Am I still their son if I’m from another universe where they all died?” (heck, his mother died BEFORE the original Ultimate Universe was destroyed, and she was returned to the living in this new reality).

However, his existential doubts are suddenly secondary to Billie’s departure. So he heads to the other universe, and when the key is activated, the energy from the key is picked up by the Maker’s Council AND the Ultimates. The problem there is that the Maker’s Council all want control of the key, and obviously, the Ultimates want to KEEP the Maker’s Council from getting the key, as well, so now everyone is after Billie. It is a strong opening concept, and I really appreciated how it offers up a nice glimpse into the wider Ultimate Universe, which we really haven’t had outside of The Ultimates, really (the Hulk’s appearance in the Ultimates is STRIKING). To be frank, some of these characters seem fairly DIFFICULT to see interconnecting, so to see it happen in this serie will be fascinating.

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How does Peter Parker react to meeting Miles Morales?

As Miles is looking for Billie, he runs into Peter Parker and Peter’s son, Richard. Peter, of course, has become Spider-Man in his late 30s, and after he went missing for a while, his super-suit that he was given when his powers were activated, was given to his son, RIchard, and transformed Richard into a version of Spider-Man, as well. Peter realized that he HAD to get Richard trained a hero because he honestly doesn’t know when he might go missing again, so he helps Richard train as a superhero (of course, Richard wearing a black suit version of Spider-Man’s costume makes him appear like Venom to us).

The amusing twist in this comic is that to Peter and Richard, Miles is a VETERAN superhero, and Peter doesn’t love that Richard is SO starstruck by seeing this new Spider-Man. Miles, of course, is used to the Spider-Verse stuff by now, so it doesn’t surprise him to see an alternate universe version of Peter Parker (he quickly takes to calling him “Spider-Dad”). It’s very clever stuff by Ziglar and Camp. They also did a nice job with Miles adjusting to this new world, and how WEIRD it is. It is one thing to get used to an alternate universe, it’s another to spend a LOT of time in it searching for your sister, and getting used to just how OFF everything is. It also makes you wonder whether there is a Miles Morales on this world.

Scharf and Delgado do a good job balancing the action (the Spot is the first villain we see, and he is used well, and I assume it’s meant as a nod to the character’s prominent role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was the introduction of the version of Spider-Man who influenced Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man, the so-called “Spider-Dad” take) and the character work, as we see Miles freak out over his sister being lost in this new world. I also liked seeing Scharf’s take on all of the major members of the Maker’s Council, as well as the Ultimate members who show up to investigate Miles’ arrival at the end of the issue, giving it a fun cliffhanger.

This is a fine kickoff to what looks to be an interesting crossover event.

Source: Marvel